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Friday, June 5, 2015

Married Life: Spontaneous Summertime Fun

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ShareFunshine #CollectiveBias

"Hey love, welcome home! Wanna go for a walk down by the water?"

Who can say 'no' to that? My husband works from home, and I swear he is always scheming. Now that it's summertime, these nights are even more frequent. I'll walk in the door, and there will be towels packed for a beach adventure, or our bikes will be ready for a ride along the Greenway. If you know me, you know any adventure, even an impulsive one, needs a take-along snack. M&M's® Plain are a favorite in our house. I promise it's not just because we're M&M (but yes, we did have them as the favor at our wedding), we're also chocolate lovers. Okay, me more than him, but I'm converting him. I also love any combination of salty and sweet. So, before one of our spontaneous summertime fun adventures, I made a batch of my favorite Tropical Trail Mix featuring M&M's Plain. After the recipe, make sure you keep scrolling to enter the sweepstakes below to win a $100 Walmart e-gift card. A winner is drawn each day!

The first (optional) step is to create the Island Toasted Cereal Mix to go in the trail mix. This whole process takes about 15 minutes, so if you are in a hurry to get out and going on that adventure, skip this first part, and you'll be out the door in two minutes or less! But, if you want to add some extra sweet, here's the Island Toasted Cereal Mix recipe:
Ingredients: 1 cup of toasted rice cereal, 1 cup of toasted corn cereal, 3/4 T butter, 1/2 T corn syrup, 1 T packed brown sugar, 1 T pineapple juice, 1/4 cup shredded coconut

Directions: Combine rice and corn cereal in large microwaveable bowl. In a microwaveable mixing cup, microwave butter and corn syrup for 20 seconds until melted. Stir in brown sugar and juice, and microwave for 45 seconds. Stir the mixture and pour it over cereal, stirring to coat. Microwave cereal on high for 3 minutes, stopping to stir every 45 seconds. Spread on wax paper and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

Now it's time to create your Tropical Trail Mix. Here's what you'll need:

You can find all of these delicious ingredients, including M&M's Plain and other MARS® or Wrigley® favorites at your local Walmart. I found the M&M's Plain in the candy aisle as well as on the end of the ice cream aisle.

So, you know, I also picked up some of my other favorites in both aisles: M&M's® Peanut, Skittles®, Life Savers® Hard Candy, and M&M's® Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches.

Now, back to my trail mix: all you have to do is layer your favorite ingredients into a mason jar, cap it, throw it in your bag, and walk out the door! You could even add in some of those M&M's Peanut or Skittles to make it even more tropical!

If you want more ideas for delicious, summer treats click here. After making a fun summer purchase from MARS® or Wrigley®, you can also download the Blippar app from your Apple or Android store to scan your package and receive exclusive content.